Holiday Security Alert – Theft Awareness

According to FreightWatch International, companies usually experience a major increase in cargo thefts – of up to 40% – during the holiday season. Typically, food items are the most commonly stolen cargo, but not so during the holiday season. Electronics, designer clothing and shoes are the most targeted product types during the holidays.  Therefore, with trailer thefts and burglaries increasing during the holiday season, we recommend retailers send a reminder message to their logistics field management teams to take extra precautions to secure assets, buildings and trucks/trailers.

A sample message for your review is provided below.

TO:  DC/Warehouse/Logistics Management Personnel

This message is a reminder to take extra precautions during the upcoming Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year’s holiday weekends to ensure the physical security of our buildings, trucks and trailers is in place, and to protect our physical inventory against loss due to theft.

According to the FBI, the Thanksgiving holiday weekend is historically the weekend that the most break-ins and thefts occur through burglaries.

Our assets are particularly vulnerable during this time of year with reduced staffing, vacations and extended periods where the operation is closed and no one is present on-site.  In addition, trucking companies and parcel carriers will use many ‘temporary employees’ during the holidays, thus increasing our exposure to people we don’t know. Some of our locations have been targeted for theft several times during the holiday season.  The way to prevent being a victim is to increase your Loss Prevention vigilance during the holiday period.  Some basic items to consider include:

  • Advise your local security/alarm provider of your work schedule and the times when the building is not occupied.  This is also a good time to verify your call-list with the alarm company and the protocol they have on-file.  Damage from fire, sprinkler systems or water line breaks can also create significant inventory loss; therefore make sure your monitoring company is alert and has an up-to-date call list.
  • Verify the security systems in place (locks, access controls systems, CCTV, etc.) at all building entrance and exits, including dock doors, are in good working order. Double check to ensure that alarm points-of-protection are activated and functioning by conducting an “alarm test” with your alarm company.
  • Ensure all trailers have 5th wheel locks in place, side and backdoors are padlocked and delivery vehicles are locked and secured.
  • Advise local law enforcement of your Holiday schedule and request patrols of your building’s exterior and parking lots.
  • Your location could a target.  Do not assume you are not!

Making sure these and other security steps are in place will help ensure a successful and safe holiday season.  $

 

This entry was posted in Articles, awareness, cargo theft, Employee Theft, internal controls, Loss Prevention, Losses, LP, preparedness, Risk, shrink, shrink control, shrinkage, theft, theft losses, Theft Prevention and tagged , , , , , , , . Bookmark the permalink.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *